Life, Love, and Death
by ForeverWowbagger
Summary: A TancredxEmma story about how Tancred struggles with his feelings for Emma after Dagbert drowns him. It's cute, romantic, and fluffy. My first fic, so please read it and review!
1. Chapter 1

Officially, Tancred was dead. As far as almost everyone knew Dagbert Endless had drowned him in the art room of Bloors academy. In fact it was only his family and a select group of close friends who knew he was alive.

Though this lead to some perks (like not having to attend his awful classes at Bloor's, or having to put up with Manfred and his followers, or having to eat any of those awful cafeteria meals) it also meant that he had a lot of time on his hands, and not a lot of ways to spend it.

Tancred was used to drawing attention to himself. He was bright, fast, and deadly. Like lightning. As a storm-bringer, and someone who was naturally dramatic, he liked to have an audience. In short, Tancred Torsson was a people person. But now, during the week at least, when all his friends were at school, there were no people for him to be with.

He had started spending much more time by himself, and had been spending that extra alone time just… thinking. And to his great surprise, most of his thoughts had been drifting towards one particular thing. One particular _person_, actually.

Emma Tolly.

The bird-girl, the girl who could fly, the girl who had saved his life, the girl who he couldn't stop thinking about. Emma.

Tancred and Emma had been friends for quite a while, and he had never thought of her beyond that. But now Tancred couldn't get her out of his head.

He thought of her every time he saw a bird, every time he saw a blonde girl, or a girl wearing a green hood. He thought of her every time he saw a drawing or painting that he though she would like, or a book that looked like it could have come from her aunts' shop. He thought of her all the time, and every time he thought of her, the weather around him would go ballistic.

He finally decided that something had to be done about it. But what could be done?


	2. Chapter 2

Tancred had liked girls before. He'd even had girlfriends before. But never like this. He liked Emma as a person as well as a girl. They were friends. But now he didn't even know how to be around her. He was fairly certain that he had begun acting like a total idiot and his friends probably thought that his near-death experience had given him brain damage. Maybe they were right. His brain certainly seemed to have stopped working. At least it never seemed to be able to work whenever _she _was around.

As he was mulling these things over for the zillionth time, he realised that he had wandered through town, to Ingledews', the bookstore where Emma's Aunt worked, and Emma herself lived. As usual, the weather had started going crazy as soon as his thoughts started drifting towards Emma, and now there was a hailstorm, encompassing the ten foot radius around his head.

He was standing on the doorstep, staring at the place where the girl he loved… Wait _loved_? Was he in love with Emma? He wasn't sure. He definitely _liked _her, but he had never been in love before. He wished he could talk to Lysander about it. He figured that his best friend would probably know what being in loved felt like, he was obviously head over heals for his owngirlfriend, Lauren. But to be honest, Tancred was just to embarrassedabout his emotions to try to talk to him about it.

But it was true that Emma was all he could think about. She was just so amazing. He loved her eyes, her hair, her laugh, her selflessness, her endowment… Come to think of it, he loved everything about her. So maybe he was in love with Emma. The hail around him grew even more violent. Yes, he decided, he was in love with Emma.

So he was standing on the doorstep of the girl he loved, staring at the door, wondering whether he should knock. It was Friday, and school had probably been let out, but he didn't really know whether she would be home yet. And even if she was home, he didn't have any real reason to be there. What would he say to her? He couldn't just say _I love you_, that would be horrible. And how would he explain the hailstorm that had now expanded to include the entire block?

His frantic thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice behind him.

"Tancred?"


	3. Chapter 3

He span around at the sound of her voice and the hail immediately turned to soft, white, snow. _Wow, that was subtle_, he thought to himself. "Um… hi." He mumbled lamely. She looked up at the sky, "It's snowing in August." She remarked, smiling and giving him a questioning look. He grinned back and shrugged, "Yeah, weird, isn't it. No idea how that happened." She laughed. God, she had such a beautiful laugh, he thought.

But them Emma's face turned serious, and she took a step towards him, "So, are you alright?" she asked, looking up at him anxiously. "Wh-why would you ask that?" He stuttered, distracted by how he close she was. He could see every snowflake that had landed in her long blonde hair.

"Well usually when the weather is weird it means that something is going on with you." She put her hand gently on his arm and he thought his heart would beat out of his chest, "so are you alright?"

"Um… Well actually Em I-"

Her grey-blue eyes were staring deep into his.

"I just realised I never thanked you for saving my life." He said and she blushed,

"Tancred you don't have to-"

"Yes I do. If it weren't for you I'd be dead."

"Well then I'm just happy that I was there. But you don't have to feel obligated, or-"

"No, Emma, that's not what I- I mean, I don't feel-"

"It's alright Tancred, you're- you're one of my best friends, and I would do anything for you."

Tancred sighed. He really had no idea how to go about this, but he figured that he should probably just spit it out. It was easier said then done. He reached out and brushed some snow from her hair, it was very soft, and he continued to brush it as he said, "I just wanted-needed to tell you how grateful I am. For you." He barely managed to get the words out, it came out as a whisper, but he supposed she heard him because she blushed even deeper.

"I'm… just grateful you're alive," whispered back, just as softly, "I don't know what I would do if you had died." Now he was the one blushing.

Suddenly a wind started up around them, pushing them closer together, Tancred thanked whatever part of his mind controlled his endowment, for having the guts to do what he couldn't, and put the hand that wasn't already in Emma's hair around her waist. He slowly dipped his head towards hers, hoping desperately that she wouldn't pull away… Then suddenly they were kissing. Emma gasped against his mouth and then sank into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck…

Finally they broke apart. Tancred looked around and realised that the snow had stopped. In fact, there was not a cloud in the sky. The city was beautiful, and sunny, and warm. Tancred looked down at Emma, who was looking up at him, eyes shining, and his heart soared.

For the first time since his drowning, Tancred Torsson felt truly alive.


End file.
